Thousands of violators could be removed from sex offender registration

by MICHAEL GORSEGNER

Thousands of violators could be removed from sex offender registration

HARRISBURG, Pa —

Pennsylvania legislators are on the clock to fix a sex offender registration statute or thousands of violators could come off the list.

The House Judiciary Committee met at the State Capitol this morning to update the status. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently ruled that a Cumberland County case that applied the sex offender registration retroactively is unconstitutional.

If the laws don't change thousands of offenders might be free to go.

"I do think there is some urgency with the legislature. Obviously, there is a lot of work that has to be done over here," said Cumberland County District Attorney Dave Freed. "So, what we are here doing today along with the Pennsylvania State Police it's sort of laying out where we think things stand, I'm making some suggestions on where the legislature can go."

Freed's office is appealing the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. In the meantime, legislators are working with similar legislation from states like Alaska to try and change the current laws.